Boris FX + Imagineer Systems Merger FAQ
15 December 2014

On December 15, it was announced that Boris FX, a leading visual effects software developer will be acquiring Imagineer Systems. This is veryexciting news for the Imagineer team and we'd like to address the questions that our customers have here. The officialpress release announcement can be found here.Questions and Answers

Q. What is the news behind the acquisition?

Boris FX has acquired Imagineer Systems, the UK based developer of mocha: the Academy Award-winning planar tracking and visual effects tools used in both feature film and television visual effects. Together Boris FX and Imagineer Systems will draw from a deep well of talent and technology to offer the most advanced and wide ranging tools available in the broadcast and post-production industry.

Q. Who is Boris FX and what do they do?

Founded in 1995, Boris FX is a leading developer of VFX, compositing, titling, video editing, and workflow tools for broadcast, post-production, and film professionals. Boris FX products have grown to serve over a million artists worldwide. The company's success lies in its ability to tightly integrate and leverage technologies through strong partnerships with Adobe, Apple, Avid, Grass Valley, Nexidia, Sony, Quantel and other leading developers of video editing software.
Boris FX’s flagship product is Continuum Complete, an extensive plug-in package which includes 3D particle effects, image restoration and touchup tools, true 3D lens flares and volumetric lighting effects, keys and mattes, extrusions, color grading tools, time-based effects, blurs, glows, and cinematic effects such as film glow, film grain, and film process looks. All filters take advantage of either multi-processing or OpenGL hardware acceleration for an interactive effects design experience.
Q. Why did Boris FX acquire Imagineer?
Imagineer Systems’ technology, branding and team are a perfect compliment to Boris FX. We see the acquisition as a strategic merger that will build upon the strengths of both organizations; allowing us to offer the most advanced and wide ranging tools to the broadcast and post-production industry.
Combining technical resources will result in advanced new features for both company’s products and help bringing amazing new workflows to our customers. Integrating proprietary mocha technology will allow Boris FX to speed up VFX workflow and further improve return on investment of our toolset. In addition, future Imagineer products will draw upon Boris FX’s expertise in advanced integration with host support, delivering planar tracking to a wider user base.
Additionally, combining technical support teams will better serve our customers with staff now located in the UK, Boston, New York, California and Australia.
Will Imagineer Systems be operating independently?
Imagineer Systems Ltd will continue to operate as a wholly owned UK subsidiary of Boris FX. ImagineerCEO, John-Paul Smith will continue to lead technical and operations strategy from the Guildford, UK location. Boris Yamnitsky will serve as the chairman and Ross Shain will become the Chief Marketing Officer of both Boris FX and Imagineer.
Will there be any changes to the organizations?
The current staff will remain in place and the basic organizations will remain intact. The plan is work together to best leverage technical, support, sales and marketing talent to improve the overall customer experience. There will be a transition phase, but we expect business as usual from a customer perspective. Already both companies share many mutual customers, so these customers will benefit from an account and support perspective.
Organizationally, we will look for areas that benefit our customers such as the ability to better support our customers with more global technical support resources and experienced product specialists.
I use Boris FX tools. How will I be affected by this deal?
Boris FX customers should expect no change to the quality of service and customer promise they are used to from Boris FX.
Already, Continuum Complete users are seeing the value of integrating mocha’s robust planar tracking data into systems such as Avid Media Composer, Blackmagic Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas. In the future, there will be even greater benefits as we integrate mocha’s planar trackingtechnology directly into our products. While this will not be available immediately, we think the future is quite bright for BCC users that are want to be on the cutting edge of visual effects and post-production.
I am a mocha user. How will I be affected by this deal?mocha users should be assured that the acquisition is great news from the perspective of Imagineer’s team. The plan is to continue our mission of making mocha the most powerful and easy to use tracking, roto-masking and object removal utility in the market. We see no change in the plan or on the ability deliver new and improved products. Together Imagineer and Boris FX staff will continue to support all existing customers including those using bundled or licensed products such as mocha AE CC or mocha HitFilm.
Beyond this, we are excited by Boris FX’s proven experience in advanced host integration, GPU acceleration, user-friendly licensing system and of course, the deep well of hundreds of professional filters that compliment advanced mocha workflows. How will this affect Imagineer’s licensing and technology partnerships such as Adobe bundled mocha AE?
We see no foreseeable change in our license relationships with companies like Adobe, Quantel, Silhouette, FXhome, and CoreMelt. Imagineer recently delivered new and improved updates within Adobe After Effects Creative Cloud 2014 release and the new HitFilm 3 Pro.
Both Boris FX and Imagineer share the common goal of working closely with our partners to better support all editing, effects and post-production software in the industry. If anything, our partners should continue to see even more future benefits and improvements in the licensed and bundled mocha products.
What are the plans for the future products?
While it is early to say, we are confident that both Boris FX users and mocha users will see useful benefits in future releases:
Boris Continuum Complete will continue to be developed as the most comprehensive plug-in package in post-production. Adding mocha’s planar tracking to BCC will add major workflow advantages to better handle challenging tasks such as advanced screen inserts, tracking 3D text and particles. We envision BCC users will appreciate the ability to access the power of planar tracking directly from their host system, without having to leave the timeline.
mocha Pro will continue to lead the industry as the “planar tracking problem solver" purposely designed to reduce manual keyframing commonly associated with tracking, roto-masking and object removal. Adding more host support and improved performance is a priority and we will continue to work closely with our customers to push innovative ideas into reality.
Together the Boris and Imagineer teams look for your questions, feedback, suggestions and support.
Boris FX’s flagship product is Continuum Complete, an extensive plug-in package which includes 3D particle effects, image restoration and touchup tools, true 3D lens flares and volumetric lighting effects, keys and mattes, extrusions, color grading tools, time-based effects, blurs, glows, and cinematic effects such as film glow, film grain, and film process looks. All filters take advantage of either multi-processing or OpenGL hardware acceleration for an interactive effects design experience.

Q. Why did Boris FX acquire Imagineer?

Imagineer Systems’ technology, branding and team are a perfect complement to Boris FX. We see the acquisition as a strategic merger that will build upon the strengths of both organizations; allowing us to offer the most advanced and wide ranging tools to the broadcast and post-production industry. Combining technical resources will result in advanced new features for both companies' products and help bringing amazing new workflows to our customers. Integrating proprietary mocha technology will allow Boris FX to speed up VFX workflow and further improve return on investment of our toolset. In addition, future Imagineer products will draw upon Boris FX’s expertise in advanced integration with host support, delivering planar tracking to a wider user base. Additionally, combining technical support teams will better serve our customers with staff now located in the UK, Boston, New York, California and Australia.

Q. Will Imagineer Systems be operating independently?

Imagineer Systems Ltd will continue to operate as a wholly owned UK subsidiary of Boris FX. Current CEO, John-Paul Smith will continue to lead Imagineer’s technical and operations strategy from the Guildford, UK. Boris Yamnitsky will serve as the CEO of Boris FX and Ross Shain will become the Chief Marketing Officer of both Boris FX and Imagineer.

Q. Will there be any changes to the organizations?

The current staff will remain in place and the basic organizations will remain intact. The plan is work together to best leverage technical, support, sales and marketing talent to improve the overall customer experience. There will be a transition phase, but we expect business as usual from a customer perspective. Already both companies share many mutual customers, so these customers will benefit from an account and support perspective. Organizationally, we will look for areas that benefit our customers such as the ability to better support our customers with more global technical support resources and experienced product specialists.

Q. I use Boris FX tools. How will I be affected by this deal?

Boris FX customers should expect no change to the quality of service, pricing and customer promise they are used to from Boris FX. Already, Continuum Complete users are seeing the value of integrating mocha’s robust planar tracking data into systems such as Avid Media Composer, Blackmagic Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas. In the future, there will be even greater benefits as we integrate mocha’s planar tracking technology directly into our products. While this will not be available immediately, we think the future is quite bright for BCC users that are want to be on the cutting edge of visual effects and post-production.

Q. I am a mocha user. How will I be affected by this deal?

mocha users should be assured that the acquisition is great news from the perspective of Imagineer’s team. The plan is to continue our mission of making mocha the most powerful and easy to use tracking, roto-masking and object removal utility in the market. We see no change in the plan or on the ability deliver new and improved products. Together Imagineer and Boris FX staff will continue to support all existing customers including those using bundled or licensed products such as mocha AE CC or mocha HitFilm. Beyond this, we are excited by Boris FX’s proven experience in advanced host integration, GPU acceleration, user-friendly licensing system and of course, the deep well of hundreds of professional filters that complement advanced mocha workflows.

Q. How will this affect Imagineer’s licensing and technology partnerships such as Adobe bundled mocha AE?

We see no foreseeable change in our license relationships with companies like Adobe, Quantel, Silhouette, FXhome, and CoreMelt. Imagineer recently delivered new and improved updates within Adobe After Effects Creative Cloud 2014 release and the new HitFilm 3 Pro. Both Boris FX and Imagineer share the common goal of working closely with our partners to better support all editing, effects and post-production software in the industry. If anything, our partners should continue to see even more future benefits and improvements in the licensed and bundled mocha products.

Q. What are the plans for the future products?

While it is early to say, we are confident that both Boris FX users and mocha users will see useful benefits in future releases: Boris Continuum Complete will continue to be developed as the most comprehensive plug-in package in post-production. Adding mocha’s planar tracking to BCC will add major workflow advantages to better handle challenging tasks such as advanced screen inserts, tracking 3D text and particles. We envision BCC users will appreciate the ability to access the power of planar tracking directly from their host system, without having to leave the timeline. mocha Pro will continue to lead the industry as the “planar tracking problem solver" purposely designed to reduce the manual keyframing commonly associated with tracking, roto-masking and object removal. Adding more host support and improved performance is a priority and we will continue to work closely with our customers to push innovative ideas into reality. Together the Boris and Imagineer teams look for your questions, feedback, suggestions and support.

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About Boris FX

Boris FX is a leading developer of visual effects, titling, video editing, and workflow tools for broadcast, post-production, and film professionals. Boris FX products have grown to serve over a million artists worldwide. The company’s success lies in its ability to tightly integrate and leverage technologies through strong partnerships with Adobe, Apple, Avid, Blackmagic, Grass Valley, Nexidia, Sony, Quantel and other leading developers of video editing software. In 2014, Boris FX acquired Imagineer Systems, the Academy Award-winning developer of mocha planar tracking software. In 2016 Boris FX acquired GenArts Inc. and added the flagship Sapphire product to the BorisFX product family.